The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."

Sunday, August 06, 2017

TV: An anthology can be a very weak collection

"I'm not normally a strip club kind of a guy," Danny Pudi says over eight minutes into THE GUEST BOOK. Pudi built up a lot of good will over several seasons of COMMUNITY playing Abed.

As the episode continued, he pretty much used up every bit of it.

"She gave me a nickname right away: Tiger!" Danny Pudi voiced overed. "Up to that point, the closest a woman has ever come to calling me a Tiger before was when my wife called me a p**sy at my uncle's funeral."

In the role of said wife?

Lauren Lapkus is . . .

A nightmare?

Her role of Sandy is a non-starter. Anne Ramsey was more sympathetic and lovable in THROW MAMA FROM THE TRAIN.

Typical worry for Sandy? That her husband will drive drunk, hit someone and end up in prison sleeping all day "while I have to raise that screaming banshee you put in my twat."

THE GUEST BOOK is TBS' attempt at a new sitcom -- a comedy anthology, in fact.

They've never worked, by the way.

Anthology shows were all the rage in the fifties.

Academy Award winner Loretta Young moved over to television in 1953 with a dramatic anthology series which ran for eight seasons and won a Golden Globe and four Emmys (three for Loretta).

Other anthology shows of the period included THE DANNY THOMAS HOUR, THE DUPONT SHOW WITH JUNE ALLYSON, THE JOSEPH COTTON SHOW, WESTINGHOUSE DESILU PLAYHOUSE, BOB HOPE PRESENTS THE CHRYSLER THEATRE, THE 20TH CENTURY FOX HOUR, CAMEO THEATRE, CLIMAX! and CROWN THEATRE WITH GLORIA SWANSON.

The bulk of the anthology shows were dramas. On the list previously, Danny Thomas, Bob Hope and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez included comedy.

In terms of the fifties and comedy anthology shows? There was THE EDDIE CANTOR COMEDY THEATRE. And for America, that was pretty much it.

In the late sixties, LOVE AMERICAN STYLE would come along and actually be a success.

However, it was the exception.

LOVE BOAT and FANTASY ISLAND are not classified as anthology shows but that is what they were.

And they introduced the notion of a regular weekly cast to comedy anthologies.

A regular cast playing the same characters. CAROL & COMPANY might have benefited from something similar. The two season NBC comedy anthology presented the same cast each episode but in different roles each week.

Greg Garcia has at least surrounded his show with recurring characters -- locals who interact with each episode's guests.

RAISING HOPE was Garcia's gem. His duds include FAMILY MATTERS, MY NAME IS EARL and YES, DEAR.

How does GUEST BOOK rank?

It's better than his duds but, as yet, it's no RAISING HOPE.

It strives to be funny but it rarely is.

Episode two features Stockard Channing who is a good sport but really can't bring her devout Christian character to life.

At one point, reading the lodge's guest book, she notes, "Some lunatic wrote a filthy story in the guest book about women and feet. I can't imagine how crowded hell must be these days."

You can imagine Vicki Lawrence going to town on those lines.

Stockard doesn't.

Other efforts at humor also fall flat such as when Stockard's adult son reveals how he got his atheist fiancee, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, to accept the cross given her, "I told her I would go down on her four times for every time she goes down on me."

There are often outrageous lines that would produce huge laughs if the scenes -- and the timing -- were shaped.

That's the problem with single-cam shows.

Actors mistake it for drama.

They're unable to bring it to life.

They shoot the scenes and head home.

And convince themselves they've brought the script to life.

They rarely do.

MY NAME IS EARL is party of what destroyed NBC Thursdays.

That hideous show was a single-cam show and it was not funny at all. Many complained that it was preaching the cult Scientology. They should have been more focused on the lack of humor. It was a dud. The ratings dropped each season.

It just wasn't funny.

YES, DEAR -- a dopey show, at best -- provided more laughs in one episode than MY NAME IS EARL managed in one season (and all the laughs from MY NAME IS EARL came via miracle worker Jaime Pressly as Joy).

We're not suggesting that the anthology series go multi-cam and live studio audience in season two.

We are suggesting that you don't write zany lines to be delivered as though you were ordering from the TGIF appetizer menu.

For example, why write Stockard's character into a non-believer at the end and give her lines explaining her leaving the church like this, "My nipples are an inch long. Jeff won't even go near them. They look like the tail end of a balloon animal."?

The point would seem to be for laughs.

But the laughs just don't come.

Maybe the answer is to cast comedians or sketch artists in episodes?

Tracey Ullman, for example, could create a character all on her own -- and judging by the episodes broadcast thus far, the cast is all on their own.

Otherwise?

Otherwise, the best answer is for TBS to pull the plug and make this a one season series.

Search This Blog

Third Estate Sunday Review

About Me

Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).